Possessing the Land
Possessing The Land
Deuteronomy 6:10-12: “So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, 11 houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—when you have eaten and are full— 12 then beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
· The Bible is one book composed of many books. God has not changed; He is still the same God today as He was then and will be tomorrow. So there are valuable lessons for us written long ago.
· The things He did in the beginning were a foundation for everything He would do in the future. Creation/ Promised Land/ Finished work of the Cross
· Therefore, it’s important for us to understand the similarities between the Promised Land for the children of Israel and the finished work of the cross for the Christian.
· The Lord prepared a wonderful place for the children of Israel where they would freely enjoy the work of others on their behalf. It was a finished land, and He promised protection, provision, and rest in this new land.
· This is the essence of grace. Jesus has gone before us and prepared a place for us in His finished work. It is our Promised Land of salvation. It’s done. It’s finished. It was paid for by the blood of Jesus! We just enter in!
· Our challenge is in believing what is ours, and it’s really the same challenge the children of Israel had. There are some practical things that we can learn from them. God said it was theirs but they had to possess it by faith.
Exodus 23:20-21: “Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. 21 Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him.
· God sent an Angel before them to keep them on the right track and to bring them into the right place.
· They were to obey the Angel and not provoke him with disobedience. He will not pardon them or forgive them; that was not His purpose. This Angel was probably the same that appeared in the burning bush; the Angel of the Lord; Jesus.
· He is what is needed to bring us along the right path. There is a warning that “obedience will bring them into their destiny” but “disobedience will have negative consequences.”
· All they had to do was follow some rules to get to the place God wanted them to go. That’s the way that the kingdom of heaven works… its rules operates differently from the world. If they disobeyed the Angel they would not arrive at their destiny.
· We find this truth in the New Testament.
· The early churches started out going in the right direction, but soon they wanted to make their own decisions and go their own way. Most of Paul’s letters were directed to churches to stop this, turn around, and follow Jesus.
· This is also happening today in the church, the worst thing the church can do is to try to find compromises with the culture. This does not make the world more like us; it makes us more like them.
· Disobedience will keep us from following in God’s direction, unless there is repentance from this sin. This is true with the children of Israel, it is true with the church and it is true of individuals like you and me.
· God’s plans have every contingency for man’s failures, our failures do not surprise God, and therefore man’s imperfections are proof of His grace. But His grace is a reflection of His goodness and nature, not our failures.
· God waits for that moment we repent for the sin of our failures and then experience that overwhelming sense of His love and forgiveness.
· Where sin abounds, grace abounds much more!
Hebrews 3:18-19: And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
· Disobedience and unbelief are directly related. (Say it with me)
· The children of Israel were disobedient to the Lord, therefore, unbelief set in and they were unable to enter the Promised Land, their place of rest. The result was wandering in the desert for forty years. Wandering is the opposite of rest.
· If they would have entered in and “possessed” the Land, they would have “received” their “rest.” They could rest from their fears; they could rest from their anxieties, guilt, shame, regrets, etc.
· All the good things that God had prepared for the children of Israel were still in the Land waiting for them, but they could not possess them because of their unbelief. They were on the outside looking in.
· The Christian has all of the promises of salvation, plus access to the kingdom of heaven here on earth, right now. The kingdom operates on certain spiritual laws and unbelief hinders the operations of those spiritual laws.
· God is asking us to believe Him in “everything,” not just some things. If we are not following the ways God has laid down for us then we are following man’s ways…and that is compromise. It’s lukewarm, its mixture, it contaminates our faith.
· If I do not believe God all of God’s word, then I am not following God!
· I am wandering aimlessly, even though I have a place that is just right for me in the kingdom of heaven right here on earth, right now.
Hebrews 4:2-3, 10-11: Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. 11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.
· Our place of rest is His grace.
· It’s a place where we rest in the “finished work” of Jesus on the cross. It’s a place where we can freely receive everything that was purchased for us by another.
· It’s a place where we don’t have to try to earn it because it already belongs to us.
· It’s a place where we’re not trying to get what we already got.
· It’s a place where we freely take what is ours.
· All the promises of God are already ours, just take them by faith.
Romans 8:31-32: What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
· If you ask the average Christian if they believe the promises of God you would get a positive answer.
· Unbelief says: “His promises work for others but maybe not for me.” God’s promises are for someone else, somewhere else, and at some other time.
· And… if we do not believe all of the promises are for me in this time and this place, then I don’t have to obey God’s word. Therefore, unbelief and disobedience are common in many of the American churches.
· So what’s the difference between believing and faith?
· Faith says, “If this is for some other time, why not now? If this is for some other place, why not for right here? And if this is for someone else, why not me? Whatever God has done for someone else He will do for me.”
· Faith takes what is ours and possesses it!
· Faith takes the “I” out of the question and puts God right in the center. If God said it, it must be true; it’s true now, it’s true here, and it’s true for me. It’s mine!
· We must recognize that unbelief will ruin our faith, and we will wander on this earth and we will not arrive at our destiny.
· If we are going to follow the Angel in front of us, we have to believe that what God has in store for us is good.
Exodus 23:22: But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
· This is the promise of God. If we will obey His voice and do all He says, then He will be our strength and our foundation.
· He does not disqualify anyone who has slipped, failed, or disobeyed. The path back is to repent and admit to God where we went wrong and ask for his strength in our obedience.
· Our enemies are Satan, the world, and our fleshly desires. And if we are going to walk in victory we need His strength because we have no real strength of our own… at all.
· Israel never expected to enter the Promised Land unopposed.
· Joshua led them to victory because God promised he would be an enemy to their enemies and an adversary to their adversaries.
· The same is true for us today.
· We cannot live the Christian life without opposition in the world. It has been that way from the beginning. Satan uses demons, other people, and circumstances against us and that puts up opposition that is too strong for us alone.
· David understood this as he stood against Goliath. There was no way this young boy could defeat this giant of a man. But David came against Goliath in the name of the Lord, not in his own strength.
· By committing myself to God I will certainly be put in dangerous situations. Yet the more dangerous the situation, the more I will see the kind of Christianity that God wants for me.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10: And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
· This is the essence of New Covenant Christianity, His grace being what we need in any circumstance.
· Paul says he will rejoice in problems because he understands that they are opportunities for grace!
· But there are laws for how His grace works; I must be willing to be weak so His grace can be strong for me.
· Unfortunately the average Christian is trying so hard to be strong in the face of opposition…when they really need to get weaker, not stronger so that he can be strong. That’s rest!
· You see if I rely on my strength then God will allow me to find out the hard way that I need his strength. I have to go against my own nature to try to fix things in my own power. I can rest in His strength.
Mark 4:35-41: On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”
· The disciples were experienced fishermen who knew how to handle a boat in a storm.
· Whenever there is a storm you must row harder and someone must be bailing the water that comes over the side before the boats sinks.
· The disciples were giving it everything they had, but they could not keep up with the storm.
· But Jesus was with them and He was “resting” in the middle of the storm. The harder they worked, the more He rested. Finally they stopped rowing and bailing and turned to Jesus. They didn’t think He cared they were going down!
· He was waiting for them to stop working, so He could work.